I've managed to get frequent flyer coach tickets with my miles many times. Virtually all of my travel accumulating miles was vacation, not business travel. However, much of it was long distance and was "big bang for the buck", mileage-wise. Most was on United or their partners, but I got at least 1 free ticket from 3 other airlines' programs. Free tickets on United miles from the East Coast US were to Europe (3 times, including this spring albeit with sub-optimal connections), 1 to Australia, 2 to Mexico, 1 to Costa Rica, and at least 5 tickets to the West Coast (SF, Seattle, Vancouver). I paid for tickets to Asia 4 times because they accumulated lots of miles for relatively inexpensive tickets. Same with 4 tickets to S. America. I got 2 separate tickets to Mexico within the past 4 years because the fare was ridiculous at $600+ each time, but I think the nonstop frequent flyer tickets were only 30,000 or 35,000 miles. Both times, my flights were 60% empty, which explained why I had no problem using my miles, but did not explain why the airfare was so high for a purchased ticket.
My ticket to Paris in late spring this year would have cost a minimum of $1,150 so I thought that 60,000 miles was good mileage usage. I just paid $92 in taxes. I booked it 2 1/2 months ahead of time and seats were only available on United's partners with lousy connections as opposed to a nonstop flight on United. With United's new mileage accrual rules based on ticket prices, I doubt I'll be getting many more free tickets in the future.
The airlines used to have good bonus offers at times for double mileage or bonus miles on certain routes at certain times. That worked out very well for me several times. One particular deal to SE Asia amounted to virtual perpetual motion. I haven't seen generous offers like that in about 5 years.
Unlike most of my friends, I've never used miles for upgrades or any other purpose.
